Avocado farm🥑 with beautiful view, surrounded by redwoods, 30 minutes from Santa Cruz
California
I am currently able to accommodate up to two people at a time for a Wwoof visit. I will usually have a cottage available for housing and provide meals to all who are helping on the farm. Still a number of openings available for the coming months. If you are interested in a visit please let me know.
I am grateful to live in a beautiful place with a wonderful view and a climate that allows me to grow all kinds of delicious and healthy food throughout the year. Initially, my focus was on avocados and growing enough food to feed my family. In recent years that has shifted. In addition to feeding my family, I am growing more and more for our small local market. So the growing beds have increased, there are more avocado trees, as well as a variety of other fruits, and creating healthy baked goods has become a mainstay as well. At this point my aspiration is to develop a replicable model in which a person could make a decent living by growing food and selling it directly to the consumer at a reasonable price.
Over the years Wwoofers have been an integral part of this farm and I once again am enjoying meeting enthusiastic individuals from around the country and around the world while sharing the wonderful experience of life on this farm. I will consider hosting a WWOOFER for as little as a week or up to a month, generally 3 weeks has proven to be ideal. Activities could include harvesting, mulching, composting, pruning, grafting, planting, digging, weeding, cultivating, irrigation, and perhaps a small construction project . Please let me know if you have other skills such as experience in construction or technical/computer skills as there are a number of potential projects as well. We ask each visitor to contribute up to 6 hours a day, 5.5 days a week. The main house is open for use during the day and evening. Healthy vegetarian food will be provided with most meals prepared for you and access to the kitchen for others. We ask each wwoofer to plan on assisting with the preparation/clean up of shared meals in addition to the other work hours.
The homestead/farm is at the end of a private country road surrounded by forests of redwood, madrone and live oaks, located off of a scenic route. It's a 15 minute drive from Watsonville and 30 minutes from Santa Cruz. (No nearby public transportation). Beaches, redwood forest trails and other small farms, are all nearby. I have three daughters (ages 17, 29 and 31) and seek someone who will be respectful of this quiet family setting. No drugs/alcohol please. We also have a cat and two dogs. When time allows, we enjoy sharing more than meals and garden work - music making? arts ? conversation? board games? what are your interests?
This would be a good setting for you if you like to get your hands into the dirt, enjoy being in beautiful natural surroundings, relish the flavors of fresh produce and vegetarian cuisine, are open to being instructed in how to do things in order to obtain best results, and can work independently or as part of a team. Before finalizing any visit request I will request that we speak briefly by phone. Upon arrival all visitors will be asked to show a driver's license or other ID. Thanks for reading this far and I look forward to your application and potential visit.
Organic methods: Soil inputs are compost, composted horse manure, rock dust and OMRI certified gypsum.
Certifications: I have lived and grown food on this land for 30 years and have never used a chemical fertilizer or pesticide. Unfortunately the cost and time it would take to maintain organic certification make it unviable. I refer to what we do here as Naturally Grown.
Internet access available
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Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Fruit or nut farming
Wild foraging
Aromatic or medicinal plants, teas
Vegetable or fruit preservation
Bakery
Methods or systems
Biological pest control
No-till farming
Permaculture
Regenerative agriculture
Host type
Production farm
2.4
Hectares
|
6
Acres
Kenneth (Ken)
Member since 2013
Languages spoken:
English, Spanish
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Response rate: 100%
Response time: typically within 2 days
California
Watsonville Transit Center is the nearest bus station. The nearest bus stops are on route 73 coming from Santa Cruz. The Norman Mineta Airport on San Jose is the nearest airport (SJC)
Reviews
Maya
United States
•
February 2026
Kenneth was a wonderful host. Kind, relaxed, and boy does he has an amazing property growing all kinds of varieties. Even though we visited when there was a winter storm and mostly rain, we still felt that we had a meaningful experience. We worked outside a bit, helped Ken with his website (because it was raining), and had really nice conversations. Ken prepared nice vegetarian food, and we also brought some of our own, mostly for breakfast.
Ken led us in yoga almost daily and then brought us to meet his greater community like where he takes yoga classes, and the farmers market he sets up. Overall, a great stay. I would recommend going in warmer months and checking weather well in advance even thought you cannot control that in the end!
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Eugenia
United States
•
December 2025
Ken was the most gracious and accommodating host! All the homecooked meals were absolutely delicious and I learned so much during my stay. I felt comfortable on the property, which was really important for me as a first time WWOOFer. I also made an incredible long-life friend (the other WWOOFer staying on the property at the time!) which I am forever grateful for, a benefit of having a property that accommodates multiple WWOOFers at once. You get out of this experience what you want -- don't worry, there is plenty to do and plenty of variety in activities as well (I helped build a firewood shed, reinforced a greenhouse, built a fence, and threw firewood, on top of all farm activities like wheelbarrowing mulch, picking foods, weeding, etc.)! I would recommend going to the farmers potluck, checking out the farmers market, and giving Nimbus (the cat) plenty of snuggles.
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Margaret
United States
•
November 2025
I spent two months here and I am so grateful for the wholesome and beautiful experience that it was! I was filled with such joy and peace working among the gorgeous plants and soil on the farm, and the beautiful redwoods and mountains around us added to the serenity as well. I felt very welcomed by Ken and enjoyed learning from him throughout the journey. I admire his dedication to sustainability and his vast knowledge on all sorts of things, along with his expansive collection of incredible books! We had many great conversations about pretty much every topic you could think of. I feel thankful for the time I was able to spend with Ken and his family and for the honest and meaningful work we completed each day. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience WWOOFing here and will hopefully be back to visit !
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Francisco
United States
•
November 2025
I had a genuinely good time staying with Ken and his family on their farm. I felt welcome, included, and valued both within the farm life and the local community!
The farm is pretty well-established. It focus on balancing sustainable and organic principles with practicality. Ken grows primarily a variety fruit and vegetable crops—with avocados, of course, being one of the highlights!
Ken is really knowledgeable and patient, taking the time to explain tasks and the many aspects of the farm that I wanted to know about. Since they've been hosting for over a decade, I think they are a particularly great choice for newcomers to WWOOFing, like myself.
I also appreciated how Ken is engaged with local events, which offers a wonderful opportunity to connect with the local community, socialize, and do things beyond farming. The nearby area itself is quiet, peaceful and charming.
Definitely recommended—I would love to come again sometime!
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Alice
United States
•
August 2025
I spent a little over 3 weeks at Ken's farm as a first-time WWOOFer! The farm is incredibly beautiful surrounded by redwoods and so close to the ocean.
I learned so much about farming all kinds of vegetables and fruits, and it was really inspiring to learn about how Ken and his family created this farm, cottage, and house from scratch. It's definitely work with no shortage of things to do; but I learned so much about what it takes to run a farm, and Ken was always accommodating with scheduling (waking up early to beat the heat), etc.
I shared the cottage with another WWOOFer and got along with her really well, but just a note that it is tight quarters! My favorite part of the whole experience was absolutely getting to wake up to the morning fog and the satisfaction of the fruits of labor (especially the before and after of weeding or turning beds). I'd love to come back again!
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Ariana
United States
•
August 2025
This was my first solo WWOOFing experience and it’s safe to say this opportunity to stay and help out has to be one of the most valuable and nourishing experiences of my lifetime.
Starting from the drive through the beautiful redwoods forest, I felt an overwhelming sense of joy and relaxation. Ken’s farm fostered even more positive energy from the moment he kindly welcomed me into his beautiful home and life. I’ve learned so much and met so many amazing people. Shortly after arriving on the farm at 6 pm, I got into Ken’s Cyber Truck and he drove us to a local farmer’s potluck party. I enjoyed meeting very kind people, eating abundant delicious food and engaging in interesting conversation. Most mornings, Ken would lead me in an amazing yoga practice. Then we would head outside where I was introduced to various weeds to pull out of the beds, (purslane, vine weed, and mallow). After working hard on the farm, we ate deliciously fresh farm-to-table meals. I enjoyed eating roasted purple cauliflower, making little pizzas out of huge zucchini and of course, lots of avocados and fruit for dessert. Harvesting fruits and veggies farm- to-table style every meal was a major highlight of my experience. I picked copious amounts of avocados, raspberries, purple broccolini, kale, lettuce, tomatoes, plums, and lemons, oranges, and tangerines. Learning the complete process to plant lettuce, beets, radish, purple, cabbage, and cauliflower was fascinating.
Some other major highlights included
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